As the scheduling season transitioned to Northern Summer from Northern Winter, Air India progressively added frequencies to its International network. The airline had made changes to its International widebody network to avoid overlap with ex-Vistara flights post merger and was offering the fastest connection from Sydney and Melbourne to Frankfurt and Paris, via Delhi. The VIA campaign was gaining momentum and the airline was focused on international transfers with addition of frequencies not only on widebody flights but also to neighbouring countries like Nepal and Thailand.
Two things changed the situation, literally overnight. The first was the terrorist attack at Pahalgam in April which led to a builtup of hostility leading to Pakistan closing its airspace for Indian carriers. This led to longer flight times for flights from India to the west. Air India was the biggest loser amongst Indian carriers because of its huge hub at Delhi and long haul flights to points i n Europe and North America, since it was the only Indian carrier then to operate to Europe and remains the only Indian carrier now to operate to North America. The second was the deadly crash at Ahmedabad in which VT-ANB crashed, killing all but one passenger and many on ground. This led to diktat from the regular to check other Dreamliners, with the airline deciding to extend the checks on the 777s as well. As if these two weren’t enough, the short war between Israel and Iran led to further airspace being closed. With the long haul operations already stretched, this became the last straw for maintaining operations and the airline decided to scale back its international network by 15%. The cancellations were to end on July 15, but the airline has not reinstated all the flights.
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The airline has now formally come out with the list of changes until the end of September (with some variations). Here is the list, region wise of how the network was in May, how it changed post the third week of June until mid-July and how it would be in August (and likely September as well).
Australia
The airline continues to operate reduced frequency to both Melbourne and Sydney. This has an impact on the connections to Europe especially Frankfurt and Paris, which was well aligned when the changes to the network were done in February.
United Kingdom
Some of the major changes to its network are done in the UK, which involves suspension of Gatwick operations. The airline is protecting London Heathrow slots as it should be by reducing operations on Bengaluru – Heathrow and shifting flights from Ahmedabad to Heathrow instead of Gatwick.
Rest of Europe
Air India is re-instating flights to Zurich and Amsterdam while it continues with reduced operations to Paris, Milan and Copenhagen.
North America
The North America flights have been the most impacted ones for Air India, since the airspace closure meant planning a landing more impacting crew on the immediate term and maintenance costs on the longer term since the cycles increase for similar block time. It also has an disadvantage with passengers. There is a considerable reduction in flights to North America.
Far East
Air India has reinstated its flights to the Far East
Tail Note
Successive governments and Air India have always had this ambition of establishing India as a large hub. Government owned Air India has been building a functional hub at Delhi since T3 came into being. Private Air India grew on to that with added frequencies and destinations. The geopolitical angle changes that for the future and now has higher weightage than ever before, while making decisions.
Air India will launch flights to Manila this September. The airline has not been able to keep pace with its announcements on the refurbishment part with the latest deadline for the 787 to go for refurbishment being April, already missed. Its narrowbody fleet was to end the refurbishment by June, which clearly hasn’t happened. The crash, subsequent investigation and geopolitical issues takes the focus further away from a revamped fleet, which will help attract passengers. It is probably time to make radical changes to get things on track and move away from mere announcements.
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